Anwar HayounLorena Garzón, pictured here in the center, is the most senior of several officials targeted by new 'anti-corruption campaigns'.

Not since the Second Interregnum has New Terra seen the potential ouster of an official as high-ranking as Lorena Garzón, one of the nation's top military authorities, who was arrested on Monday amid accusations of graft.

Some Terra-watchers(Individuals who monitor current events and power struggles in New Terra) have heralded the Lorena allegations - which, according to New Terran state media, range from using her authority to promote allies all the way to accepting bribes - as a sign that Marshal William Talbot's anti-corruption campaign won’t stop at local and lower-level officials. Lorena is also a member of the New Guard's politburo, currently New Terra central decision-making authority and which some allege to be the heart of the Military's dominant control over the nation. Lorena’s indictment seems to send a clear message: No one is untouchable.

“When you see a high-level military official in this day and age being taken to the barnyard, so to speak, it shows that for Talbot, there are no sacred cows,” said Henry Jackson, a professor at Europa's University of Political Sciences and expert on New Terran economic and political affairs.

With bribery costing Terra at-least 8 percent of its GDP annually, according to an estimate by independent Ambrosia-based economist Andy Tafford, the responsibility is on the Terran government to weed out the kind of corruption that some say is weakening the country's economy and sparking continued resentment against the former Terran ruling class who still retain much of their previous wealth.

But others suggest that Lorena- like other former members of the New Guard movement who’ve been swept up in Talbot’s campaign - was charged with graft only as a pretext to sideline her and consolidate the military chief's power base.

“There is not a single person who's hands are entirely clean in the New Terran government", said Henri Claudel, senior policy adviser with the interstellar advocacy group Human Rights in New Terra and author of the book 'The Coming Collapse of Terra'.

“This has nothing to do with uprooting corruption,” Henri said, adding that he believed the current 'anti-corruption campaign' is but a pretext for Talbot’s political endeavors.

Marshal Talbot himself addressed concerns during a brief speech given after a military summit on Tuesday,"We understand fully that certain trepidations have developed as a result of rigorous investigations by the anti-corruption bodies created by the Government, I can only address this by saying that New Terra needs this in order to complete our national goal of the 'Four Modernizations'. We need to dismantle old Imperial-era practices of graft and bribery in order to increase economic efficiency and further relieve the financial burdens people may face on a daily basis. Our policies will only cease when New Terra is completely free of corruption and the Galaxy looks upon us once-more as the epitome of efficient and just governance."

Some Terran analysts were quick to note that the song played after Talbot's speech wasn't the Commonwealth's anthem but was instead the popular song 'Maréchal, nous voilà!' for which a soundbite and lyrical translation have been provided below for our non-French speaking viewers.

Many people in the Alpha Quadrant believe that Terrans are in general motivated by an irrational nationalism cultivated by the Military to secure its political hold on the country. This is why some of the demonstrations by Terran Nationalists have been labeled as "the rebirth of extremism". Personally, I think this misunderstanding reflects a lack of knowledge about New Terran history, which in the hundred years past has been filled with foreign invasions and civil wars. We Terrans are peace lovers, but our own history has taught us that unification as a country, especially in the face of foreign threats has always been the prerequisite for a peaceful life. • Reply • Share ›